European Youth Choice for the European Parliament Elections 2009

Over nine months prior to the EP elections in June 2009, several hundred young people from all parts of the EU contributed to the discusion on the most important issues for young people in modern Europe and now the results of all our conventions are collected in the Youth Agenda 2009 – the final publication of AEGEE’s Y Vote 2009 – European Youth Choice campaign.

These 12 youth demands are presented together with the priorities of all political groups represented in the European Parliament with the contributions from

Jerzy Buzek, MEPPresident of the European Parliament

Joseph Daul, MEPChairman of the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) in the EP

Martin Schulz, MEPChairman of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the EP

Guy Verhofstadt, MEPChairman of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the EP

Rebecca Harms, MEPChairwoman of the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance in the EP

Lothar Bisky, MEPChairman of the Confederal Group of the European United Left – Nordic Green Left in the EP

Nigel Farage, MEPChairman of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group in the EP

as well as
Janez PotocnikEuropean Commissioner for the Environment

We want to thank everybody who made the success of our campaign possible – the people who worked hard as national managers or local organizers, the active participants at our conventions and campaigning actions, our patrons and supporters and everybody else who contributed in one way or another to Y Vote 2009.

The launching convention took a look into the European Union’s institutions structure and their decision making process, with presentations by experts from the leading think thanks on the European affairs (CEPS, Belgium, CER, United Kingdom and Montesquieu Institute, Netherlands). Young participants worked in three creative and thematic groups: Piccadilly Circus team, Hide Park team and Camden Town team, which tackled the topics of the EU’s historical development, the EU treaties, and the different approaches to formalize the future for the hybrid combination that makes up the EU. The three groups also organised and performed a series of launching activities in the different settings of London, including the inauguration of the campaign tour bus on the final day of the event, which were covered by the EuroparlTV and Euronews. Two debates were organised with the Members of the European Parliament as well as an open debate on the future of Europe, at the end of the event, which was organised and moderated by a professional facilitator.

The event gathered young people from different parts of the UK and Belgium, Romania, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia and Spain.

Into the Oxbridge – Y Vote UK Tour Part I

The first part of the Y Vote UK tour visited South West England, Wales and the Western Midlands. The activities included street activities, campus debates, information stands, concerts, meetings with student unions and other youth initiatives, visit to the Wales Assembly, participation in the Oxford Spring Day celebration, interviews for local media and workshops on all topics of the Youth Agenda 2009, UK Euro-skepticism, the British political system and the UK media coverage of the EU affairs. Similar formats were used in the following weeks of the tour.

Tour crew was composed by young campaigners from Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain and the UK. Each week campaign crew was changed with 10 new members – 40 in total.
This is England! – Y Vote UK Tour Part II

The second part of the tour continued in West and East Midlands and East of England with above mentioned formats of activities. Particular focus was given to the informational stands, promotional stunts and thematic meetings in the university settings – in Birmingham, Coventry, Cambridge and Nottingham, in interaction with student unions and European and political student societies.

The highlights of the third step of the tour, around North West England, included a series of workshops and debates on the importance of the EU and the European Parliament’s increasing role in the EU decision making (by Montesquieu Institute), wide street actions in Liverpool, Bolton and Bradford, full day of campus activities at the University of Sheffield, joint activities with the institutional campaign’s Choisebox in Manchester, online campaigning workshops and production of campaigning videos and interviews and blogging contributions (in cooperation with thinkaboutit.eu European blogging competition).

To the Highlands! – Y Vote UK Tour Part IV

The final week of the campaign toured through Yorkshire and the Humber, North West and North East England and Scotland. Its pick were valuable meetings with several UK Members of the European parliament (including an EP Vice President) and MEP candidates. Week was also marked with workshops and campus debates and information activities, meetings with student representatives and international students, concerts and street performances.

European Youth Choice – Final Convention in Edinburgh

The final convention in Edinburgh was a stage for the final analysis of the ten ‘Issues that Matter’ from the Youth Agenda 2009 document – education, employment, creativity, mobility, citizenship, multiculturalism, migration, regionalism, European social model and the relations between the EU and the world. We presented our ideas on these topics to 4 members of the European Parliament and MEP candidates from all major political groups, and we discussed them with the representatives of the British youth, together with British experiences in youth participation.

We used the last days and hours before the voting day, June 4, to exercise the best campaigning techniques on the streets of the Scottish capital (including the full day activities during the Edinburgh Marathon and the visit to the Scottish Parliament).